Most cities, towns, villages, hamlets and bumps in the road have a square (or 2 or more). Tbilisi is no exception and there are probably quite a few. It makes it easy to say - ‘The Tour meets at the statue in the square’ for instance. Tbilisi’s main square is known variously as Liberty Square, Freedom Square or as far as we’re concerned, ‘that massive, hellish roundabout reeking of diesel fumes’ - albeit with a nice statue of St George in the middle (used to be Stalin - so an improvement there). To access the square, pedestrians scurry from underpass to underpass and pop up around it’s periphery like meerkats. Fortunately the free walking tour company was pretty specific, ‘The Old Town Hall in Liberty Square in front of the Burberry Shop’ and we’re now very experienced meerkats so got there easily. Just us and 50 odd other people. The huge size of the group was a surprise to us as these folks seem to have 10-15 usually - but it was the first cool (22 degree) day since we arrived 5 weeks ago - maybe there were others in the same boat.

The most important thing with a large group is the guide - otherwise phrases such as ‘herding cats’ and ‘squirrels on a trampoline’ can spring to mind. We made sure we stayed near the guide and learned loads of new things about our current city. We visited a relaxed Georgian Orthodox church (they let us wimmin-folk in in trousers) and saw some beautiful paintings including St Nino and her droopy grapevine cross. We visited the Catholic church in ‘French Street’. Back in the day it didn’t matter where you were from or what stripe of Catholic you were - French, Roman, Italian whatever - you were just French - thus French Street. Far be it from us to dislike a good sweeping generalisation - afterall - we never generalise. One of the high points since we were a bit peckish by 12.30 pm was the visit down the stairs to the bowels of the earth - AKA to the bakery under the seminary (near the Sioni Cathedral). This place has been going over 500 years and to say it’s a hidden gem is a bit of a stretch. It doesn’t have a neon sign at street level, but it’s on Google Maps - so voila! no longer hidden. We tried mushroom bread and later came back for another variety of khachapuri - this one a rectangular shape pastry bread with cheese. Once we returned to the surface there was a conveniently located older lady close by who does quite well from tour groups. Her stock in trade was chichikhela - or as it’s known in these parts, ‘Georgian Snickers’. This is a candle-shaped sweet treat that’s made by hanging walnuts on a string, letting them dry for a couple of days then dipping and coating them in grape must and flour. Our tour guide takes great pleasure in quizzing new arrivals on what they think it is. Candle is the most often heard guess - though sex toy has been suggested a few times too. This isn’t Amsterdam people! We continued on past another of Tbilisi’s oldest shops - not surprisingly, with Iran next door, rugs - and beautiful they were too. Can’t imagine how many tourists must end up shipping home rugs from here (or rolling up a smaller one to stuff into their bags). This part of Tbilisi is beautiful and we passed a ruined caravanseri from ancient Silk Road times and then got to enter a medieval hostel currently being renovated (or at least conserved) where merchants would stay in their own tiny rooms during sales trips.

We finished up on the Old Town side of the river and, for the first time, crossed the coolest bridge in Tbilisi - which was a surprisingly enjoyable experience. At night the lights flash the elements that make up the human body in morse code - all about togetherness and similarity rather than hatred and ‘the other’. The view of Tbilisi from the far side of the bridge was stunning - we were able to take in the expanse of the ruined 4th century Narikala fortress. Due to the size of the group, it wasn’t possible to take the cable car up - but we’ll add it to our list. We continued back over the oldest (sort of) bridge in Tbilisi. In the olden days it was always built from wood to enable it to be burned if invaders turned up unannounced. As a strategy, not so effective as Tbilisi has been destroyed 40 odd times in its (albeit long) history. We were now in Meidan Square and walked beneath it through the Meidan Bazaar to reach the other side. We received detailed instructions on Georgian traffic at the start of the tour. Be brave, look confident, make eye contact and pray. (The opposite was true for either children or beggars attached to one’s leg or stray dogs... avoid eye contact at all costs. Very hard to walk with a child clinging to a leg and if everyone gave a treat to a stray dog we’d soon have a pack of 50 following our group and enjoying the sights). So drivers - eye contact. Kids, beggars, dogs - no eye contact. Simples. Our imaginations ran wild in the bazaar - so easy to think how it must have been in the time of the ancient Silk Road - full of spices and products from near and far, changing hands for currencies from all over the known world - wow! There are still carpets, spices, and decorative pieces of course and still many different merchants - but Visa/Mastercard and AMEX are the currencies most common these days.

The bazaar underpass led us safely to the far side of Meidan square and up a steep hill to enjoy the old Persian balconies and architecture. Including Tbilisi’s only mosque where Sunni and Shia allegedly co-exist happily. We’re not 100% sure we could find our way here again, but the next stop having climbed up, was to spiral down a stair case to Tbilisi’s lock bridge and it’s very own, small but perfectly formed, innercity waterfall. Swish. And the first time we’ve seen a tame peacock available for photographs. From here we found ourselves in the sulphur bathhouse district - we are still contemplating adding this to our To Do List. Here’s a joke... a massage from a Tbilisi bathhouse is one of the most amazing things in the world - you’ll feel great when it’s over - firstly of course, because it’s over. It’s been described as having every bone in your body broken, in 5 minutes or less. It’s certainly a picturesque part of town and one we will likely return to. Shortly after the baths area, we finished the tour and hoofed it back towards the old town for a couple of extra khachapuri from the 500 year old bakery (still going strong). Suffice to say it seemed a very, very long walk home.

Other highlights of the week that was? Steak - we hardly eat chicken here because good quality steak is only A$10/kilo. Since we almost never splurge on red meat - it’s been a novelty to have it every second or third night. Meantimes we visit our Asian haunt and buy 3 meals - which we use on alternate nights. Our apartment has a small kitchen, made smaller by the lack of a microwave, so cooking takes a while - heating up on the stove top, slightly less. We’ve also discovered a wonderful little French restaurant and plan on heading back there in the next couple of days. Apparently French food and the French style of cooking has always been highly regarded in Georgia. Yay! Was absolutely superb and lucky to cost €30 for two. If it were in Paris you would simply hope it was tucked away in a tiny neighbourhood corner and no-one else ever found it. We’ve been enjoying our wanderings about town and the weather is finally thinking Autumnal thoughts - combined with frequent days of gales at 60+km/hour and lower temperatures, it’s great to feel the cooler weather - and is turning our minds towards the vivid crimsons, golds and all shades between of the Irish Autumn that awaits us in 3 weeks. First off however we should probably plan our 4 days in Yerevan, Armenia. Knew there was something else to put on the To Do list!